Should BYOD be involved in your strategic planning?

The 2016 tech year is well and truly underway, with the new 12 months of consumer electronics being unveiled at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It’s no great surprise that the buzz on the opening days is all around the launch of some of the newest devices, with industry heavyweights Samsung and LG pulling back the curtain on their new Galaxy S7 and G5 smartphones respectively.

There’s little argument that these devices are big business – over 400 million smartphones shipped in the fourth quarter of 2015 alone according to Gartner, an almost 10 per cent increase on the same period in the previous year. So how can you, as a business owner, exploit the pervasiveness of internet-connected gadgets to your best advantage?

The next time you sit down to carry out some strategic planning for your company, it might be worth looking into how your operations can be improved with a bring your own device (BYOD) policy. From cutting down on operating costs to allowing greater freedom to escape the traditional office environment, the number of businesses experiencing the benefits of BYOD is growing all the time.

What is BYOD?

With the proliferation of cloud computing, it’s now easier than ever to replicate much of our computing processes from any device, anywhere in the world. Service providers such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Apple’s iCloud have shifted the data storage paradigm away from physical hard drives to large datacentres that we now access over the internet.

The number of businesses experiencing the benefits of BYOD is growing all the time.

The ability to get essentially the same office experience from anywhere has naturally led to the idea of people working from whatever device they so choose. If your employees can achieve the same professional results from an iPad on the beach as they can from a desktop PC in your cubicle, why wouldn’t you offer them the chance to do so?

That’s the essence of BYOD – giving you the flexibility to work the way you want to.

How could BYOD fit into strategic planning?

Whatever your unique goals for your organisation, there are potential benefits to implementing a BYOD solution that might surprise you. One of the leading reasons why a company might opt for BYOD is a simple financial one, as purchasing new technology can be a hefty investment.

With BYOD, expenses for equipment, and even voice and data services, are transferred to the users themselves, in this case the employees. This might seem like a situation that most employees would baulk at, however research from Good Technology found that many people are happy to incur that cost if it gives them greater freedom. According to the organisation’s second annual State of BYOD Report, half of all companies surveyed require their employees to cover all costs, and those employees are willing to do so.

Could smart devices be part of your business strategy?

Figures such as these suggest that, the freedom of BYOD brings with it greater employee satisfaction, and an increase in engagement. If lowering costs and improving productivity are key focus areas of your strategy mapping – and for many businesses that’s likely – perhaps giving your workforce greater choice and control of their process is something worth considering.

Keeping track through business strategy software

Introducing a BYOD solution to your business could be a great move, however getting more done from your smart device can extend into managing your strategy itself. Setting your goals and company roadmap is only part of the strategy, the key is to be able to monitor your progress constantly.

Tools such as StrategyBlocks’ iPhone app allow you to take more of your business strategy with you wherever you go. With a robust set of features to work in harmony with your wider business plans, it’s just one more example of how modern smart devices are changing the way we work.